Cristopher Sanchez struck out a career-high 13 in his second career shutout to guide the visiting Philadelphia Phillies to a 6-0 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday.

Bryce Harper hit a mammoth three-run homer for Philadelphia, which evened its record at 23-23 with its 14th win in 18 games since Don Mattingly took over for Rob Thomson as interim manager late last month. Mattingly missed Saturday’s game to attend his son’s college graduation, so bench coach Dusty Wathan guided the team in his place.

Trea Turner went 2-for-4 with two runs and an RBI. Harper reached base three times, adding a pair of walks to his three-run blast.

Marcell Ozuna went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts for Pittsburgh, which managed only six hits and drew no walks against Sanchez (5-2). Pirates starter Bubba Chandler (1-5) allowed five runs (four earned) on three hits and four walks in three innings.

Philadelphia got started early against Chandler, beginning with Trea Turner’s leadoff single. Kyle Schwarber followed with a walk before Harper sent a 3-1 fastball over the center-field wall for his 11th homer of the season.

The visitors added two more runs in the second, thanks to a rally that began with a pair of walks. With two outs and two on, Schwarber’s double to right — combined with a throwing error by right fielder Jared Triolo — plated a pair of runs.

Meanwhile, Sanchez was cruising. He retired the first 11 batters he faced until Bryan Reynolds doubled with two outs in the fourth. However, Sanchez quickly bounced back to strike out Ozuna to end the inning.

In the fifth, Sanchez yielded a one-out single to Nick Gonzales before inducing a double-play grounder to end any potential threat.

The left-hander then set down the Pirates in order in the sixth, striking out O’Neil Cruz for the final out. He gave up a leadoff double to Konnor Griffin in the seventh, but slammed the door thereafter.

That set the stage for Philadelphia to tack on an insurance run in the eighth. Justin Crawford walked with two outs against Justin Lawrence before Turner followed with an RBI double to make it 6-0.

Sanchez struck out two more in the eighth before surpassing his career high in punch-outs with a strikeout of Ozuna in the ninth. His 108th and final pitch of the day resulted in Nick Yorke’s game-ending grounder.

–Field Level Media

NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. — The PGA of America may have opened up the setup at Aronimink Golf Club, but that did not open up the crammed PGA Championship leaderboard Saturday.

Alex Smalley rallied on the back nine to shoot a 2-under-par 68 and build a two-shot lead, but nearly two dozen golfers are in striking range after the third round of the second major of the year.

If Smalley were to lift the Wanamaker Trophy on Sunday night, it would mark one of the biggest upsets in recent major golf history. Smalley, 29, is playing just his fifth major and has never finished better than T23. The Rochester, N.Y., native also has yet to win a PGA Tour event in 140 starts.

He enters the final round at 6-under 204, separating late in the day from a new group of contenders at 4 under par: Spaniard Jon Rahm (67), Englishman Aaron Rai (67), Sweden’s Ludvig Aberg (68), Germany’s Matti Schmid (65) and Canadian Nick Taylor (65) — all of whom made mid-afternoon moves despite increasing winds.

Three major winners are three shots back at 3 under: Northern Ireland star Rory McIlroy (66), Xander Schauffele (66) and Patrick Reed (67). Joining them is Maverick McNealy, who shared the 36-hole lead with Smalley but bogeyed two of his last four holes to stumble to a 71.

The conditions were far more scorable Saturday morning than at any point of the first two rounds. Chris Kirk, Englishman Justin Rose and Norway’s Kristoffer Reitan took advantage with rounds of 65 after only one 65 was seen Thursday or Friday. That trio rose to 2 under for the championship, as did Germany’s Martin Kaymer (66), Chile’s Joaquin Niemann (66), Bud Cauley (67), Ben Griffin (67) and Aussie Cameron Smith (68).

Also in the 12-way tie at 2 under are Max Greyserman, Chris Gotterup, Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama and Australia’s Min Woo Lee, each of whom settled for 71s after starting the day one behind the leaders.

Smalley appeared to take himself out of the picture when he bogeyed three of his first four holes. He quietly worked his way back by posting birdies at Nos. 7, 9 and 10 with a bogey speed bump at No. 8.

Smalley and McNealy each birdied the short par-4 13th to return to 4 under. Then Smalley holed a 27-foot putt straight uphill at No. 15 to take the outright lead before adding another birdie at the easy par-5 16th. He became just the second player to touch 6 under this week as McNealy spent a brief time at that score Friday.

Smalley couldn’t get up and down from a bunker at the par-3 17th, but saved par to maintain the lead. Then came a 14-footer for birdie at the last.

–Adam Zielonka, Field Level Media

Keibert Ruiz had three hits, including a homer, and drove in five runs, and Cade Cavalli pitched into the seventh inning as the Nationals beat the Baltimore Orioles 13-3 on Saturday in Washington.

Jacob Young and Brady House each had two hits with a homer, and CJ Abrams had three hits for Washington, which reached the .500 mark after losing their previous 15 games when they had a chance to do so going back to 2024.

Cavalli (2-2) allowed three runs on eight hits and struck out eight without a walk in 6 1/3 innings.

Samuel Basallo and Tyler O’Neill homered for Baltimore, which has scored three runs or less in eight of its past nine games.

Orioles starter Chris Bassitt (3-3) gave up four runs on six hits in five innings. He struck out four and walked one.

Abrams led off the second with a double. Nasim Nunez walked with one out and Ruiz followed with a homer to right to make it 3-0.

James Wood doubled leading off the third inning and scored on a two-out double by Abrams.

The Orioles rallied against Cavalli in the seventh. Basallo led off with a homer to right and O’Neill followed with a line-drive to left to pull the Orioles within 4-2.

After Leody Taveras singled, Coby Mayo hit a high fly ball down the left field line near the foul pole. The ball was called foul and that was upheld after a crew chief review. Mayo struck out and PJ Poulin replaced Cavalli. Jeremiah Jackson flied out, Gunnar

Henderson walked and Taylor Ward singled to left, scoring Taveras to make it 4-3.

Wood walked leading off the bottom of the eighth and House doubled down the left-field line to score him. Abrams singled and House moved to third. Daylen Lile grounded to short with the infield in, but House beat the play at home. Nunez walked and

Ruiz singled to left, scoring two runners to increase the lead to 8-3.

Young won an ABS challenge on what would have been strike three and then smacked a three-run homer to left to make it 11-3. House added a two-run shot in the eighth.

–Field Level Media